I was banned from Diaryland for a day. It nearly killed me, I tell you. Here I was, home all day with a sick kid and no access to Diaryland. I was going freaking crazy! I emailed Andrew and begged him to let me back in. Begged him, I tell you. I was ready to prostitute myself in any way he asked when he finally relented and let me back in. (I don't think he knew how good he had it, to tell you the truth.)

And what was my crime, you may wonder? Well, I'll let Andrew explain it: "Basically, I'm not sure if you know how IPs work, but they're a number your ISP gives you everytime you log in, and they switch all the time. Anyhow, the other day someone was causing trouble on the server (spamming guestbooks) using the same IP you're using now, so I banned it, and then I guess at some point you got switched to the IP they were using, and yeah, you were effectively banned."

Just when I thought I couldn't handle it another moment, I got back in. Aaaah. But I'm not addicted. Nope. I can quite anytime I want. (I just don't want to right now.)

Joey stayed home and continued her recuperation. We played School today, as promised. She loved it. And our school hot lunch game was fun. She even made a lunch ticket to turn in for her meal. It was a very pleasant day--no arguments, no angry words, no disagreements. We were both in agreeable moods. How often does that happen? (Hint: not freaking often enough)

Gilmore Girls tonight. I *love* that show. The rest of the TV schedule can disappear, as far as I care. I just need my weekly Gilmore Girls hit.

Joey will still be home tomorrow (which means that I'll be missing school tomorrow, too). I hate missing class but it's just not crucial enough that I be there to get someone here at 7:30 in the morning again. I don't want to owe anyone else big. They're just going to learn solarizing and then have open printing time after that. I'll miss being able to print pictures tomorrow, though. Oh how I love printing. I need to start a new folder, for crying out loud!

Speaking of pictures, I hand tinted a photo of Joey today and it turned out beautifully. I think I'll frame it and send it to the grands for Christmas. I also think I'll tint some more prints for myownself. I loved it.

Last night I went a little crazy ordering stuff online. I ordered a Royal Selangor pewter goblet shaped like Gandalf for our Lord of the Rings tree and that just got me started. After that, I went to Freestyle and ordered a boatload of film (Ilford, of course) and paper (some matte paper, regular pearl RC paper and some 11x14 paper for printing my Cherri pictures. I'm going to print some large-sized photos of Cherri from our weekend shoot and frame them for her for Christmas. (As you can see, this Christmas is going to be all about photography.)

Once I finished with my Freestyle order (some $127 later), I went to Land's End and ordered some new turtlenecks. If you have seen my closet lately, you might wonder why in God's name was I ordering *more* turtlenecks since I have about 16 of them already, but said turtlenecks have gotten old and some are pilled, some are snug through the shoulders, some are tight at the wrists (I hate tight wristbands on my turtlenecks because I like to hike my sleeves up most of the time) and some are just faded. So I'm going to ditch all but about 4 of my turtles and will add my new 3 turtles (black, white and orangey-sunset color) to the mix and be feeling good.

But I didn't stop there. I had one more place to go. I went to Cooking.com and found an inexpensive fish poacher and bought it. I've lusted after a copper one that costs something like $300 but obviously didn't get that one. I don't even want to know the people who would buy a $300 copper fish poacher. No, I bought a nonstick $24 model that I'm utterly tickled about. I poach a salmon filet every year for my Christmas party and this year I won't have to cut it in half. And with a fish poacher, I will be inclined to do more poaching of fish throughout the year. I loved chilled poached salmon with sour cream, thinly sliced red onions and capers. But there's lots more to fish poaching than chilled salmon. I intend to do some experimenting, baby. Me and fish--we're copacetic.

Tonight, Joey and I were bored with everything and decided to watch a video. I had a hankering to watch A Christmas Story (as I usually do to get excited about the holidays and again as I wrap gifts) so we dug it out and watched it. When the Bumpass's dogs were harassing Mr. Parker, I thought of Kathy (of Kitchen Logic fame). Some of my favorite movie lines are from that movie--You'll shoot your eye out. Fra-gee-lay. It's a major award. He had yellow eyes--so help me God--he had yellow eyes. Triple dog dare you... And the list goes on. Only Monty Python's Holy Grail, Say Anything and O Brother Where Art Thou are more quotable in my estimation.

And now it is time in Lobotomy Land when I must eat popcorn and drink icy cold Dr Pepper. (That's because I ate dinner at 4pm like some kind of octagenarian.) Ciao!

--L